Attempt to blame debt position on COVID-19 untenable – NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the attempt by the government to blame the country’s debt position on COVID-19 is untenable and laughable.

The party said Ghana’s public debt was increasing at an alarming rate and had already reached unsustainable levels, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 63%, before the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.

Speaking at the party’s weekly press briefing, Samuel Gyamfi, the national communications officer of the NDC, said: “The claim by the government’s spokespersons, that COVID-19 is what has accounted for our current unsustainable and catastrophic debt situation, is not borne out by the facts.”

He said the government could not show any significant or self-financing projects for the money it has borrowed since coming to power.

Abandoned Mahama projects

“Whereas President Mahama can boast of commencing the construction of 123 new community day senior high schools (E-blocks), 46 of which he fully completed, President Akufo-Addo cannot boast of a single secondary school he has built since 2017, despite his unprecedented borrowings,” Gyamfi said.

He said President Akufo-Addo had abandoned most of the infrastructural projects he inherited from the erstwhile Mahama government and left them to rot.

He appealed to Ghanaians to kick out the President Akufo-Addo led-government and vote for John Mahama.

Gyamfi said when voted into power, Mahama would restore the country to the path of growth, development and true progress.

He argued that there is no gainsaying that Ghana’s debt position, with a debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of 76.7%, is highly unsustainable and exceeds the acceptable threshold.

It is worse than where “we were when we joined the HIPC debt relief programme in the year 2001, at which time our debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 61%”, Gyamfi said.

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